@CarmillaKriegstein @vann @cougar618 I think the mother is the black haired lady in the last panel of page three. You're right that she is never seen or mentioned at all before this tho for some reason.
@no168_92 it does not, the manga streamlines and cuts quite a bit of scenes from the novel but the novel also overindulges in explanations, unnecessary scenes and metaphors that go on way too long. So the adapter was probably trying to get rid of that problem but took it too far.